The trio next to them have already begun to exchange crystal nuclei. Their supplies seemed to be very sufficient and they had three boxes of the most important anti-inflammatory drugs. Seeing that Shen Shian had not made a decision, Yang Xueqiu pointed to the thorn sticks behind Chen Nan and Liu Fangzhou and suggested, “If these gentlemen are willing to exchange this weapon, I can give each one 20 crystal nuclei.”

Shen Shian glanced at him, thinking of the hundreds of aloe thorns that had been pulled out in the space but were useless and the hundreds of aloe thorns that had not been pulled from the aloe vera, he shook his head slightly with regret.

He had enough materials to exchange for the crystal nuclei, but what to exchange was a question that required careful consideration.

“Give us a suite.” Shen Shian said.

“One?” Yang Xueqiu confirmed, “A suite has two separate bedrooms. It may be a bit crowded if several gentlemen live together. Because this hotel charges according to the number of people, the price you pay for one suite and two suites are actually the same, do I need to change it to two?”

“No, one room will do.”

“Okay, five people, children are free, 20 crystal nuclei each, a total of 80 crystal nuclei.”

Shen Shian took out a cigarette pack from his backpack, “How many crystal nuclei can this exchange for?”

The cigarettes were taken from the tobacco factory base. The packaging was still sealed and had not been opened. Yang Xueqiu took it and checked it carefully. He seemed to be a little surprised, “It is well preserved and of high quality. Each pack can be exchanged for 15 crystal nuclei. There are ten packs in total here, sir. Do you want to exchange them all or?”

Shen Shian hadn’t spoken yet when the slightly fat one in the trio next to him suddenly leaned in here, and he laughed twice. “That little brother, may I have a discussion with you? You will need 80 crystal nuclei for your friends. Well, that’s enough with six packs of cigarettes. Let me have the remaining four packs, I’ll take my supplies and exchange them for you. You can just say what you want, and I promise you won’t regret.” After talking, he rubbed his hands together, “I’m an active smoker. I didn’t smoke any cigarettes for more than a month, the tobacco bugs are about to kill me. Brother, won’t you save someone’s life?”

The tall man snorted, “How great would it be if you quit smoking.”

The fat uncle waved his hand, “What do you know, there are many hobbies in life, why don’t you let me live comfortably after the end of the world? Besides, didn’t we just meet each other?”

Turning his head, he looked at Shen Shian hopefully.

Shen Shian thought for a while and nodded, “It can be negotiated. Do you have perfume or ointment to reduce swelling and itching?”

“Perfumer? Anti-itch ointment?” The fat uncle froze for a moment, then took down the backpack and rummaged it. “Wait a moment, I’m not sure if there are any. I haven’t seen any mosquitoes this year and I forgot to keep them. I remember that last time I put away one or two bottles…”

Liu Fangzhou opened his mouth as if he wanted to say something, and immediately swallowed back when he received Shen Shian’s gaze. The fat uncle turned his back to them. From their perspective, he couldn’t see what was in the other’s backpack, but after a few minutes, the fat uncle suddenly stood up with his bag in excitement. “I found it,” he turned around and took the two bottles of Six God{n1} before handing them to Shen Shian, “I told you there are two bottles, this brand is good, I have used this in previous years, but this year I don’t know what will happen yet, and I haven’t seen…There’s a mosquito!”

Note1: Six God is a chinese manufactured perfume and mosquito repellent spray.

“Ahhh, where, where?!” Liu Fangzhou held his head.

The fat uncle jumped up and clapped his hand, “Speak of the devil. I just wanted to say that I didn’t see a mosquito this year, but one appeared so I killed it…” He looked at them and saw Liu Fangzhou hiding behind Shen Shian. Hiding behind him, his face was pale and the uncle was confused, “What’s the matter with this child? Isn’t it just a mosquito? Why would he be afraid of it?”

Shen Shian decided to say nonsense, “He’s okay, he is just allergic to mosquitoes.” His eyes swept across the flat normal mosquito corpse in the palm of the fat uncle, and Chen Nan and Taoyuan looked at each other.

“I see, it turns out that’s the case.” The fat uncle looked at the two bottles of six god in Shen Shian’s hand, “This thing is definitely not enough for you to exchange, brother, what else do you want? You can ask for food and clothes. Yes, I have most of them.”

In the end, Shen Shian used four packs of cigarettes in exchange for two bottles of perfume and two boxes of anti-inflammatory drugs from the fat uncle. According to the exchange ratio given by the hotel, Shen Shian had a slight profit. But the fat uncle obviously didn’t think so. The cigarette was lit and he took a deep breath, and after a long time, he blew out a smoke. He was intoxicated as if he could ascend to heaven immediately. Seeing Shen Shian and his party, he was pleased. “Thank you brother!”

After paying the crystal nuclei, Yang Xueqiu, the lobby manager, handed a room card to Shen Shian. “Room number 8001, take the elevator to the fourth floor, the first one at the end of the left hand side.”

The trio where with the fat uncle also wanted a suite and they were in room number 8005, just across from Shen Shian and others.

“Check out at 12 o’clock every day, and you will need to pay for an extra day of accommodation after 12 o’clock. You can soak in both outdoor and indoor hot springs. However, because the temperature is too high, it is recommended that the soaking time be controlled properly to prevent heat stroke; there are no phones in the room, but there is a bell beside the bed in the suite. If you have any needs, these gentlemen can just ring the bell. I hope you will have a happy stay. This hotel is committed to providing the best quality service and wholeheartedly meeting all the needs of our guests.”

Yang Xueqiu sent Shen Shian and others to the elevator entrance, “The suite includes dinner service. The restaurant is on the second floor. Dinner time starts at 6 o’clock. There will be special performances tonight, and there will be unexpected surprises for several gentlemen. Everyone is welcome to join.”

After entering the elevator, Chen Nan suddenly remembered something, “By the way, is the wishing pool behind the rockery still available?”

A trace of confusion flashed across Yang Xueqiu’s face, who had always been gentle and polite, “What?”

“It’s the heart-shaped wishing pool behind the rockery…” Before Chen Nan finished speaking, the elevator door was closed. He frowned and felt a little strange, “Why doesn’t this lobby manager know about the wishing pool? The hotel staff told me that when I came last time, it was very effective. Many people in the county like to go to make a wish. I told my teammates and we wished to get a good result in another game, and then we won the championship.”

Tao Yuan replied, “It’s not weird that he doesn’t know it. It’s been three months since the virus broke out. He wasn’t necessarily the lobby manager here before the apocalypse, maybe he wasn’t even a local resident.”

Chen Nan was taken aback, then smiled, “That’s right. This hotel is so well maintained, I almost forget that this is the apocalypse.”

After entering the room to put things down——in fact, Shen Shian decided to not use the space, and the five people came to the restaurant during dinner. First, he wanted to see if he could get more information. Second, when there was a shortage of food in the apocalypse, and there was a free dinner but they decided to not eat, it was suspicious.

The restaurant was very large, with a large stage at the front and dozens of dining tables facing the stage. More people came to the restaurant than Shen Shian expected. Depending on their dressing and mental appearance, they should be foreigners who have just arrived here or have lived here for several days.

Shen Shian and the others sat at a table alone, and the trio also came. The fat uncle greeted Shen Shian, and then took a seat on their right. The dinner was brought in by the waiter’s dining cart, one serving per person, including a large bowl of rice, a portion of roasted potatoes with very little meat, a portion of vegetable fried beans, and a portion of vegetable soup. It was a minimal meal before the apocalypse, but after the apocalypse, it was extremely rare to be able to eat such a decent meal, and they could almost cry for it.

Of course not including Shen Shian and his party.

The emotions in Tao Yuan and Chen Nan’s eyes were a little bit more reserved, but Liu Fangzhou was obviously disappointed, and Shen Xun was completely disgusted.

What.

After confirming with the dog spirit that there was no problem with the food, Shen Shian tapped the table lightly with his knuckles, “Eat. There should be nothing left.”

The second half of the sentence was for Shen Xun.

The child held up the bowl reluctantly.

Shen Shian glanced around in secret, and found that in addition to the few in front of him, the tall, short and fat trio didn’t seem to be very satisfied.

Just as everyone was eating, the lights gradually dimmed, the curtain on the stage was opened, and the performance Yang Xueqiu said began.

It was a stage play, and Liu Fangzhou quickly recognized it, “Ah! The story of Noah’s Ark!”

Anyone who had received nine years of compulsory education, even if they didn’t know much about the story of “Noah’s Ark”, most of them should have heard a little.

Only the dog spirit present did not know what it was.

Under the dimming light, he quietly poured a plate of stir-fried beans into Liu Fangzhou’s bowl. At the same time, he approached Shen Shian and asked in a low voice, “An An, what is Noah’s Ark?”

“A story recorded in the Bible. God felt that mankind was too corrupt and sinful. He regretted creating man and decided to destroy all living things in the world with a flood. Among the sinful people, only Noah was a perfect good man and never did evil. So God chose Noah and his family as the seeds of the new humans, and asked Noah to build a boat, take his family and some birds and animals on board to avoid the flood. After the flood, only the creatures on the boat survived. This ship is called Noah’s Ark.”

After Shen Shian finished speaking, he put his share of beans in front of the child. “Eat all, I will make you more vegetarian meals if you eat less.”

The dog’s mouth was cramped and he ate hideously.

The content of the stage play was simple and easy to understand, and the theme they wanted to express was even more obvious: only those who ride the ark can survive and continue in the new world after the end of the world.

In this way, it was easy to understand why this base was named after “Noah’s Ark”.

“This was so fake.” Liu Fangzhou ridiculed.

China was a country dominated by atheism. The vast majority of citizens thrive under the guidance of Marx’s dialectical materialism. The religious atmosphere was extremely weak. For ninety percent of the people, all kinds of immortals, bodhisattvas, gods, and Buddhas were only real for them when they were in need of something. And the survivors in the apocalypse were exactly these 90% people, they had too many things to ask the gods.

In panic and desperation, people always find something to put their faith in, or rationalize what happened to themselves as much as possible: Ok, why did the zombie virus break out? Who can be sure that this is not a “flood” catastrophe imposed by God because he was too disappointed with mankind?

There were too many people who were hesitating, and after the atmosphere of the stage play was rendered just right, naturally some will believe it.

But there were also many unbelievers.

The fat uncle’s voice could be heard throughout the restaurant, “I have a problem. In myths and legends, God chose Noah and his family as the seeds of the new humanity. His family includes his wife, his son, and I remember his daughter-in-law? How can such a few people be the seeds of new humans? Inbreeding? Can the children who are born be healthy?”

The atmosphere rendered by the stage play changed abruptly, and the topic quickly changed to “the dangers of inbreeding”, “the old and unscrupulous gods in Western European mythology”, “Noah’s Ark or Zheng He’s 15th Century Voyage”{n2}, etc. It was out of control.

Note2: Zheng commanded expeditionary treasure voyages to Southeast Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, Western Asia, and East Africa from 1405 to 1433.

After Liu Fangzhou joined the lively discussion for a while, he felt dull. “The show is over. What about the surprise that Manager Yang said?”

As soon as the voice fell, the waiter came in with the dining car again. This time the dining car was loaded not with food, but rather round watermelons weighing more than a dozen catties each. Chen Nan got close, and touched the melon skin with his hands. “It’s iced.”

Oh, the atmosphere instantly heated up.

The crisp sound of watermelons being peeled rang out, and the sweet watermelon fragrance immediately drifted across the restaurant. There were two watermelons in total. Because there were too many people, each person was only allocated a small piece, but the waiter said that they could be purchased separately with crystal nuclei, and a catty was two crystal nuclei.

Those who could enter the restaurant were those who had booked a double-bed room or above. In other words, they were not lacking crystal nuclei or materials. So someone immediately signed up to order more watermelons, and the fat uncle ordered three in one go.

Shen Shian didn’t order it. He remembered that there were still several bags of watermelon seeds in the space that he had forgotten to plant.

When everyone was intoxicated with the sweet taste of iced watermelon, the lights dimmed again. Liu Fangzhou exclaimed, “Is there a new show?”

More than a dozen graceful figures walked in from the entrances on both sides of the stage.

At the same time, with the fragrance coming from behind, a hand with red nail polish rested on Shen Shian’s shoulder, with a beautiful tone,

“Sir, do you want someone to accompany you?”